October Recording of the Month: Rita

Our October Recording of the Month is Donizetti’s Rita or Deux hommes et une femme starring Christopher Maltman, Barry Banks and Katerina Karnéus. Sir Mark Elder conducts The Hallé.

Released 10 years ago, Rita marked our 50th complete opera recording and was the only complete opera by Donizetti not to have been premiered in his lifetime. The one-act opéra-comique received its posthumous premiere at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 17 May 1860 where it had originally been scheduled over two decades earlier.

The latest edition on which our recording is based was created from the composer’s complete autograph score and a newly discovered at the time manuscript libretto with autograph annotations restoring the French-language spoken dialogue orignially intended for the opera.

Head over to our YouTube channel to listen to excerpts from the opera and look out for more later this month: